Annibale was probably trained by his elder cousin, Ludovico Carracci (1555-1619), as well as by Bartolomeo Passarotti (1529-1592). In 1582, he and other family members established an academy for the study of art, later known as the Accademia degli Incamminati, which was fundamental to the subsequent development of Bolognese painting in the seventeenth century. Among his earliest works are a number of genre paintings much influenced by Passarotti, such as the Butcher's Shop (a version of which is at Oxford, Christ Church) and the Bean Eater (Rome, Galleria Colonna). However, Annibale's first major work was the Crucifixion with Saints (1583; S. Maria della Carita), as well as frescoes in the Palazzo Fava, Bologna, executed with Ludovico and Agostino (1557-1602) Carracci. In 1594 he was summoned to Rome by Cardinal Odoardo Farnese, settling there definitively the year after, following a brief return to Bologna in order to complete various outstanding commissions. Upon his arrival in Rome, Annibale was awarded lodgings in the Palazzo Farnese; here he was asked to decorate the ceiling of the Cardinal's camerino (c. 1596-1597), at the center of which he painted a canvas of Hercules at the Crossroads. Annibale also decorated the ceiling of the Galleria Farnese (1597-1601) with scenes from classical mythology. These were both immense undertakings that demonstrate a progressive assimilation of Roman technique, but around the same time he also found time for a number of easel works, such as the Pieta (c. 1599-1600; Naples, Capodimonte). The early years of the seventeenth century were productive ones, but in 1605 Annibale fell seriously ill; thereafter he painted little until his death in 1609 (Turner, N.: From Michelangelo to Annibale Carracci. A century of Italian drawings from the Prado, Art Services International-Museo Nacional del Prado, 2008, p. 172).